ELLIE TAKES PLUNGE AT LAST WITH DOLPHINS:
Amazing but true: Paralympic swimming hero Ellie Simmonds was always too terrified to swim in the open sea ...up until this magical moment
GOLDEN GIRL: Ellie celebrates her medal win at the London Games SHE is the gold medallist whose winning combination of courage, dedication and determination – not to mention selfeffacing charm – made her the darling of the London Paralympic Games in 2012.
Yet as Ellie Simmonds prepares to defend her titles in Rio, she has revealed a weakness not usually associated with a champion swimmer – a fear of the open water. Until now, that it is. Because as part of a moving television documentary to be screened on ITV tonight, Ellie agreed to fly to Ponta do Ouro in Mozambique, where she could meet bottlenose dolphins in their natural habitat.
In doing so, she realised a lifelong ambition.
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday from her training camp in Rio, Ellie, now 21, admits that jumping from the boat into the sea was one of the most frightening experiences of her life.
‘My heart was going and I wasn’t sure if I could do it,’ she says. ‘Leading up to it, when I was in the boat, I have to admit that given the choice, I wouldn’t have gone into the ocean at all. But I’m so glad that I did.’
With the help of free-diving expert Hanli Prinsloo, Ellie had just a couple of days to work on boosting her confidence away from the controlled environment she is used to in a pool.
‘Swimming with the dolphins, touching the seabed with my hand – they were amazing experiences,’ Ellie says.
‘My life is so structured and doing this gave me a wonderful sense of freedom.’
A few months ago Ellie, who has achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, had never even seen a dolphin up close. ‘I had always dreamed that one day I might swim with them but I am terrified of the sea,’ she says.
‘In a pool there are borders around you but the sea is different – you can’t see what’s underneath you.
‘Just the thought of it makes me panicky. It always felt like such a big, scary place. I’ve never had that with a pool – it always felt natural.’
To anyone who has watched Ellie swim, cutting a graceful figure through the water, her terror of the ocean will no doubt come as something of a surprise.
Ellie was Team GB’s youngest athlete when she walked away with two gold medals at the Beijing Games in 2008, then followed that success up four years later with victory at London in both the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley races.
Little wonder then that she is preparing to swim for glory yet again in Rio next month.
But as she waits, poised at the side of the pool and hopeful of earning herself another world or paralympic record, it won’t be the words of her trainer or even the good wishes of her family that Ellie focuses on.
Instead, she will be dreaming of dolphins as she takes to the water.
‘Dolphins have always inspired me because they are so at one with the water.
‘When I’m doing the butterfly, I think of the way they glide effortlessly through the water and I try to be exactly like that.
‘I started swimming when I
‘The sea always felt like a big scary place’
was three and whenever I went into a pool I would take a blow-up dolphin with me and ride it in the water.
‘I remember someone saying to me I had to swim like a dolphin and they’ve been my inspiration ever since.’ Ellie was awarded an MBE at the age of just 14 and in 2013 she received an OBE. These days, she can’t walk down the street without being recognised.
‘It’s lovely knowing that people are supporting you and the feelings everyone had for the London Games was something very special.’
Following hot on the heels of Team GB’s record-breaking Olympic success in Rio, Ellie confesses that she is feeling the pressure to be a winner again.
‘There’s always pressure, believe me,’ she says.
‘Before London I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders and my tears when I won were definitely relief in many ways.
‘These Games will be no different but I’m just going to go out and have fun.
‘I can’t wait for the competition to start. I always have high expectations of myself and I hate losing.’